1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to print setting method and apparatus for a print job and a medium. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method, in which a control is made so as to display a preview in consideration of a print setting of text data which is formed by an application, and also relates to a storage medium in which a program for realizing such a method has been stored and a computer-readable program.
2. Related Background Art
In a client computer, when a document (text data) formed by a certain application is printed, various layouts can be designated and printed by using a printer driver having an advanced function in recent years. As the setting of the layout becomes complicated, a method whereby an output result is previously confirmed (previewed) on a screen of a host is an effective method in order to promptly and usefully obtain a desired print result.
Generally, each application uniquely provides a function for previewing on a screen of the client computer (host computer) prior to printing. In this case, a preview of a result obtained by adapting a layout function which the application has can be confirmed on the screen.
The conventional method, however, has a problem such that the layout functions which are provided by a printing apparatus such as a printer or the like and by a printer driver for such a printer cannot be confirmed on the application.
There is also software having a “collective print” function such that text data whose printing has been instructed by an application is held in a client without outputting to a printer and a plurality of text data is transmitted as one job to the printer.
There is a case where the user wants to collectively print print jobs formed by a plurality of applications, for example, an application A suitable to form a document, an application B suitable to form a table, an application C suitable to form a drawing, and the like. However, the “collective print” function is nothing but a function such that a plurality of print jobs are collectively set to one print job. Since an instruction to perform a collective print is issued and data is also outputted upon printing in order at which the data has been spooled for collective printing, there is a problem such that the user has to spool it to an outputted page and a use efficiency is low. For example, in the case where the user wants to print materials constructed one page by one such as document, drawing, document, table, and document, the user has to perform the following operations. That is, the first page is formed by the application A and spooled. The second page is formed by the application B and spooled. The third page is again formed by the application A and spooled. The fourth page is formed by the application C and spooled. The fifth page is formed by the application A and spooled.
Even in the case where the user wants to see a preview of one collected data to be printed, although he can see the preview provided by each application, he cannot see a preview which reflects a plurality of print settings which are set by the printer driver.
Further, in the case where the user wants to collect a plurality of files and print them as one job, even if the user wants to designate finishing to the collected job, there is no means for providing it and there is a problem such that an apparatus having a preview function in such a case does not exist. There is, consequently, a problem such that a state where they are actually printed and outputted by the printing apparatus cannot be recognized unless they are printed.
To solve the above problems, a method whereby a function such that print setting attributes of a print job which has once been spooled are further edited is provided is considered. By using such a function, not only the collective print of a plurality of print jobs can be performed but also a construction such that they are composed as one job and the print setting is edited as a composed job is possible.
However, there is also a problem such that a result obtained in the case where a plurality of jobs in which different layout settings have been designated are collectively printed in a state of the different layouts or the layouts are unified and collectively printed cannot be previewed.